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About Arrival City

A powerfully argued work that combines reporting, sociology, economics, and urban studies to show how the migration of workers from villages to urban centers has become one of the most significant forces in the world today.

For the first time in history, there are now more people in the world living in cities than in rural areas, and many of them are clustering on the urban outskirts. Arrival City argues that this incredible movement of peoples, unfolding before our eyes, will be one of the most important trends in the twenty-first century. From Istanbul to Los Angeles, from Warsaw to Shenzhen, China, Doug Saunders shows how the success or failure of the immense communities forming on the fringes of traditional cities is having a profound effect on local, national, and international development.

About Arrival City

Look around: the largest migration in human history is under way. For the first time ever, more people are living in cities than in rural areas. Between 2007 and 2050, the world’s cities will have absorbed 3.1 billion people. Urbanization is the mass movement that will change our world during the twenty-first century, and the “arrival city” is where it is taking place.

The arrival city exists on the outskirts of the metropolis, in the slums, or in the suburbs; the American version is New York’s Lower East Side of a century ago or today’s Herndon County, Virginia. These are the places where newcomers try to establish new lives and to integrate themselves socially and economically. Their goal is to build communities, to save and invest, and, hopefully, move out, making room for the next wave of migrants. For some, success is years away; for others, it will never come at all.

As vibrant places of exchange, arrival cities have long been indicators of social health. Whether it’s Paris in 1789 or Tehran in 1978, whenever migrant populations are systematically ignored, we should expect violence and extremism. But, as the award-winning journalist Doug Saunders demonstrates, when we make proper investments in our arrival cities—through transportation, education, security, and citizenship—a prosperous middle class develops.

Saunders takes us on a tour of these vital centers, from Maryland to Shenzhen, from the favelas of Rio to the shantytowns of Mumbai, from Los Angeles to Nairobi. He uncovers the stories—both inspiring and heartbreaking—of the people who live there, and he shows us how the life or death of our arrival cities will determine the shape of our future.

From the Hardcover edition.

Praise

“A game changer. . . . Mightily researched, lofty and humane, Arrival City is packed with salient detail and could hardly be more timely.” —The New York Times

“With the voice of a seasoned reporter, Saunders writes compelling, firsthand narratives describing the challenges and triumphs of migrant families from across the globe.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“Arrival City asks that we take a closer look at urbanization before its mismanagement is further mistaken for the thing itself, and to recognize that a citified future is not necessarily a doomed one.” —NPR

“One of the year’s most engaging and important works of nonfiction.” —The Independent (London)

“A brisk world tour of enormous urban-fringe neighborhoods populated by people who have left the countryside. . . . Perhaps because Saunders is a journalist who isn’t selling his advice, his version of the city is . . . more persuasive.”—The New Yorker

“One does not need to be a cynic, alas, to suspect that cities and nations may not apply their best policies to their worst neighborhoods. But for those who are wise enough to try, Saunders has written the manual.” —Bookforum

“Skilled in both colourful reportage and sustaining a good argument, [Saunders] provides a badly needed progressive and optimistic narrative about our future. . . . This may be the best popular book on cities since Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities. . . . Few books can make rationalists feel optimistic and empowered for the future. [Arrival City] does.” —The Guardian (London)

“A broadly researched, passionate and portentous call for a new way to look at the experience of migrants. It is essential reading . . . for all who look at the future of cities with a mix of hope and fear.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“[An] incisive study of worldwide rural-to-urban migration, its complex social mechanisms and the consequences of institutional neglect. . . . An essential work for those who pay attention to the effects of globalization—which is, or at least should be, nearly everyone.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Doug Saunders is neither a glum pessimist nor a glib optimist and Arrival City will not please closed minds. But this provocative, disturbing, and exhilarating book is a delight for thoughtful readers. Indeed, it is essential. Migration is reshaping the world and, as Saunders demonstrates, the choices we make today will determine whether it brings prosperity or catastrophe tomorrow.” —Dan Gardner, author of The Science of Fear

“Arrival City is scarier than a dark urban fantasy and more gritty than the bottom of a demographer’s coffee cup. It’s also highly topical, as population growth and immigration are subjects of heated debate worldwide.” —Daily Mercury

About Doug Saunders

Doug Saunders is the former European Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail and the author of Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World, which won the Donner Prize, and which the Guardian said “may be the best… More about Doug Saunders

About Doug Saunders

Doug Saunders is the former European Bureau Chief of the Globe and Mail and the author of Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World, which won the Donner Prize, and which the Guardian said “may be the best… More about Doug Saunders